


Duties of Children

by Wisperwind



Category: Naruto
Genre: Choji growing up with Itachi's personality, Crack Treated Seriously, Discussions of PTSD, Don’t copy to another site, Gen, Personality Swap, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 13:25:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18121541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wisperwind/pseuds/Wisperwind
Summary: Tiny, little ninja children growing up in a world made of trauma makes for some interesting after school conversation. It's fine though. It's all fine.





	Duties of Children

Another day at the academy, another throbbing headache.

Maybe eight-year-olds shouldn’t be having constant, recurring headaches, Choji thinks to himself. But then again most eight-year-olds aren’t best friends with the single most frustrating person in all of Hidden Leaf Village.

Choji sighs, and leans back slightly, closing his eyes. No one will notice if he rests his eyes for a few seconds. Most of the class never bothers to look twice at him and anyway, in the current commotion he can get away with a tiny slip of decorum.

Iruka-sensei is handing back the tests they took the week before. Somewhere in front of him Sakura is cheering, behind him Naruto is grumbling about unfairness and that tests are useless and boring anyway. Choji himself has already received his test back, with a 100% in large lettered script written in red marker on the top. As expected.

Next to him sits Shikamaru, or maybe ‘sleeps’ would be more accurate to say. In front of him is a test sheet that he hasn’t even bothered to look at yet in favour of a few more minutes of dozing. It is marked with 0% in the same red ink. He hadn't bothered to write more than his name on the paper.

Choji feels like screaming, but that would draw attention. He doesn't want anyone's attention, he just wants Shikamaru to stop playing stupid.

He is a genius the likes of which Choji has never even heard of before. Choji knows this. Shikamaru knows this. Sadly though, it seems like nobody else does.

It’s because Shikamaru doesn't want them to. If people knew they'd have expectations, like they have of Choji and Sasuke and the other students that do well and show some sort of potential. Shikamaru doesn't show anything. He's just that lazy. It’s infuriating.

Choji is still quietly seething by the end of the lesson that Shikamaru has, once again, deemed beneath his notice. They are best friends, like brothers. Choji loves Shikamaru, and would likely die for him if it ever came down to it, but right now he feels a bit murderous towards his friend.

Only when Iruka sensei lets the class out, Shikamaru finally rouses with a yawn and a stretch. His eyes fall onto the test sheet in front of him and he nods to himself, pockets it without a word and finally turns to Choji who is sending him a look that he hopes contains all of his contempt for Shikamaru's attitude, his life choices, and the situation in general.

Shikamaru has the gall to grin in response.

Choji turns and walks out of the classroom without a word in a huff. He doesn’t look to check if Shikamaru follows.

He walks past smiling parents and elder siblings, who have come to escort his classmates home. Sasuke's laid-back, elder brother is there, smiling and with a box of strawberry pocky in hand, taking Sasuke up on his shoulders much to the younger boy's open embarrassment (and secret, but very obvious joy).

Neither Choji nor Shikamaru have anyone waiting for them today. Their parents are busy and they usually walk home together anyway. Choji's destination isn't 'home' though.

As he walks towards the training ground behind the academy. It's the only one accessible to students like them who are not officially ninja yet. He's acutely aware of Shikamaru’s stare. It’s fixed on the back of his head, unwavering and curious. Choji knows Shikamaru is trying to figure him out; figure out his thoughts, his mood. Silently Choji wishes him good luck with that. He himself has no idea why he picked today of all days to get this mad about something that has been going on for years.

Shikamaru doesn’t care. Choji knows that, has known that since they started the academy. It’s not a startling realisation. It's not new. Things have always been this way. He should have gotten used to it by now.

It’s just… it’s so frustrating.

Choji isn’t a genius, for all that Iruka might think he is. He’s smart, but not as smart as Shikamaru. Then again, no one is as smart as Shikamaru, so that’s really more indicative of Shikamaru’s oversized brain than it is of anything else. Choji isn’t jealous. He knows he has little natural talent for anything other than his clan techniques, same as his best friend. What he has that Shika doesn’t though, is drive. Determination.

Choji wants to serve his village more than he wants anything else. He wants a world that is different from what they have now, and he wants to be there to help build it. A world where no one ever has to look the way his father looks when the nightmares creep up on him unexpectedly. Where he never has to see the empty shell again that Choza becomes when his mind drifts over battlefields that have long vanished from the real world.

He wants his family and friends to be safe, wants his village and the entire world to be safe, but for that to happen, he needs to be ready to fight, ready to do anything if it’s to protect them.

He’s going to be part of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, a useful, if not integral part of their village’s structure. He knows he can't bring about world peace on his own, but he is going to be useful. He will work towards it as soon and as hard as he can. He needs Shikamaru and Ino with him for that, but. Well. Ino is focused on boys (or boy, singular, if more recent rumours are to be believed). At least she still keeps up with her training. Inoichi would never let her slack, so Choji doesn’t worry about her…. Or at least not any more than he worries about everyone else. She’ll be a capable konouchi soon enough.

Shikamaru though. Shikamaru worries Choji.

His best friend is - willingly, knowingly - so much less than what he could be. All that wasted, intentionally squashed potential makes Choji furious. Shikamaru could be an incredible asset to their village, but he doesn’t want to be.

Instead, he prefers cloud watching. Which is what he happens to be doing right now.

Meanwhile, Choji takes his frustration out on the training dummies.

He can’t practice clan techniques if his dad isn’t there to supervise him, so instead he focuses on his other skills. Taijutsu and target practice. It’s not long before there are streaks of silver and the sounds of metal hitting wood in the air. One throw, one hit. Dead centre, every time.

Choji is never going to be especially athletic. No Akimichi has ever been been, but he refuses to only rely on his clan to teach him how to fight. He will take any advantage he can get, learn as much as he can, since he can't be sure he'll be able to rely on his teammates, not as they are now.

He’s never satisfied with his own progress, though. He feels like he should be (more/faster/stronger) better than this. It makes Shikamaru’s indifference feel all the more scuffing.

When he has spent all of his kunai and barely any of his anger, and makes to retrieve them Shikamaru finally gets up to join him.

“Do you want to spar?”

Choji stares at him, blinks, then frowns. This never happens.

“Who are you and what have you done with Shikamaru?” he asks in his most menacing voice, which, due to the fact that he’s eight years old turns out to not be not at all menacing. Shikamaru just shrugs.

“You’re angry and you need to let off steam. This seems like the easiest way to get you to calm down.”

Anger sparks again somewhere in his gut, fiery and consuming. So Shikamaru is willing to train, but only if it’s the path of least resistance to calm him down? Well fine. If he’s asking to be a pressure valve who is Choji to complain?

“Fine,” he says, trying to still his shaking hands. Emotion is not to be shown. He’s a shinobi after all, he should be cold to the world. ‘Kill your emotions’ he thinks. ‘Kill them dead so they don’t kill you.’

He's not angry. They are just training. Everything is fine. Conceal, don't feel. Let it go, Choji.

“Hand to hand only,” Shikamaru says. “My mum would kill me if I tried anything else without an adult there to patch up the inevitable clusterfuck and we don’t need chakra exhaustion on top of everything else either.”

Words are hard to form around the knot of rage that definitely isn't writhing in his chest, so he just nods once, sharply and gets into position.

The fight is about as brutal as it can get when you're eight years old. Admittedly, that's not very. Choji’s hits have more power behind them and he's bigger, which means a lot at the age they're at. However, Shikamaru isn't the only one who will return home with bruises. They both have training and they aren't shy to use it. Shikamaru is quick if nothing else and Choji is tired already. Anger makes for a good motivator, but his endurance has a limit and it's lower than most people's, even on his best day.

Their movements grow sloppy fast and Choji, who is already uncoordinated with rage, ends up with a heavily breathing Shikamaru sitting on his back less than five minutes into their scuffle.

He struggles a bit, trying to shake his friend off, but if there is one thing Shikamaru is good at it’s keeping people exactly where he wants them and the attempt proves fruitless soon. Choji growls, then slaps his hand on the ground twice, conceding defeat.

“So,” Shikamaru says as he stands, holding out a hand to help Choji up as well, which he ignores. “Are we going to talk about it, or would you prefer I leave you to brood in peace?”

Choji grinds his teeth. The honest answer is that, yes, he would much rather be left alone to think and deal with his stupid, useless, illogical emotions in peace which is not brooding, no matter what Shikamaru thinks but-

But Shikamaru is as good as his brother and Choji isn’t being fair and he hates himself and Shikamaru and the situation, and the whole god damn elemental nations as a whole. Normally it would be Shikamaru he’d go to with his frustrations but how can he do that when Shikamaru is part of what frustrates him so much? Can he do that? It wouldn't exactly be fair, would it?

He gets up and turns away, and doesn’t reply. Maybe being nonverbal will get his point across, even if he’s not quite sure what that point even is. It could be ‘leave me alone’ or ‘I don’t want to talk’ or ‘Please help me make sense of this because I’m terrible at emotions and you aren’t’.

“You’re terrible at this, aren’t you?” asks Shikamaru like he was reading Choji’s thoughts. “This talking thing? Emotions? You’re supposed to be a genius, Choji. Maybe not as smart as some, but you are brilliant and you’re the most dedicated person I know, but when it comes to feelings you have no idea what you’re doing.”

Choji can’t even deny it. He can pretend at being well adjusted if he has to, but it never holds out for long. Shikamaru has practised seeing right through him since they were barely old enough to babble. It’s a useless effort.

“We're not even supposed to have emotions,” he grumbles, more to himself than to Shikamaru. Then he sighs. This feels even more like defeat than having Shikamaru sitting on his back.

“I’m angry at you, and I don't think I should be and it’s confusing.”

“Sure sounds like it,” Shikamaru hums, as calm as ever. “Any particular reason why? I’m pretty sure I haven’t done anything…”

“That’s just it! You haven’t done anything! You never do! You just-” He bites his tongue, embarrassed by the outburst. He hadn’t meant- Well actually he doesn’t know what he had meant to say. This uncertainty is a new experience and Choji doesn’t like it.

Shikamaru stares at him, searching his face for something. What, Choji doesn’t know but a few moments later Shikamaru sighs. “Sometimes you’re more trouble than even Ino is, you know that?” Shikamaru says and lets himself flop back down onto the ground, grumbling about ‘troublesome friends’ all the while.

“You're angry at me because you work so hard and I don't bother.” Shikamaru says. “That's it, isn't it? You've been annoyed about it for a while.”

“You knew about that?”

“Choji,” Shikamaru says in a voice that might have been pitying, but sounded more amused. “You're subtle, but you're not that good.”

Choji looks away, doesn’t answer.

“You’re also terrible at being angry, you know that, right?” Shikamaru goes on, nudging his shoulder. “You’re too kind to hold grudges.”

For a moment Choji wants to argue the point, but quickly decides against it. “I know that, Shika.” The nickname tastes bitter on his tongue. “Just. I do not understand you. Tell me why? I can’t believe that it is because you care so little. Why will you not do anything? You sleep through the academy, you fail all your tests on purpose, you-” he’s shaking now and it’s not with anger. It’s fear. “The two of us and Ino will be a team one day and I cannot watch you-.”

Shikamaru sighs and flops down on his back besides Choji, a hand on his shoulder pulling him down along into the dirt. They both look at the sky for a long moment and Choji is almost certain that Shikamaru has deemed their conversation too much trouble to deal with and they’ll pretend this never happened from here on out.

“Who said anything about me not caring, Choji?” Shikamaru says after a while and Choji is surprised because he sounds clearly annoyed. “Of course I care, but there’s something I think you haven’t considered.”

“Oh?” He’s honestly curious as to what Shikamaru is thinking.

“We are children,” he says it should be obvious, which it is. This isn’t new information. The expression on his face must have betrayed his thoughts because Shikamaru goes on. “We are not graduating for another 5 years, we probably won’t be fighting for even longer. They scrapped the early graduation process years ago, did you forget why they did that?”

They don’t talk about mental health in class because such a thing does not exist in their world of shinobi. ‘Kill your emotions so that our enemies can never use them against you.’ The problems start when it’s your own mind that uses them against you.

He squeezes his eyes shut and thinks of his dad again. Thinks of the nights he spends alone when he is gone on one mission or another and of the ones he spends in the company of a ghost for days after he returns. He wonders if Shikamaru’s dad is the same. Shikamaru has never said anything, but then again, neither has Choji.

“I want to be a child for as long as I can, Choji. I don’t care if it’s selfish or unhelpful or what have you. I’m eight. You’re acting like everything we do has to be for the benefit of the village, for some future fight, but that’s not true. I can sleep through class and still help my clan. I can serve our village and have a life also. I worry about you, you know?”

“You don't have to. There is nothing for you to worry about,” Choji says maybe a bit too fast.

“Troublesome. I do and there is. What is your goal here? What do you want to achieve?”

What does he want? He’s never put it into words before now. He wants his parents’ smiles to be unburdened. He wants his friends to be happy and healthy. He wants their village to prosper. He wants safety and security and comfort for everyone. He wants….

“Peace. I want to live a peaceful life and I want to be able to protect that peace.”

Shikamaru turns to stare at him, blinks once, twice, then sighs and looks at the clouds once again.

“A peaceful life, huh? That doesn’t sound too bad actually.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of the Mixup no Jutsu Zine which you can find [here.](https://mixupnojutsuzine.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Please leave a comment on the way out! <3


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